November 29, 2000
Long Lake resident spends lifetime making music
Noteworthy career includes 28 years as Air Force band leader
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Hal Johnson is a music man.
The Long Lake Township resident's life, livelihood and passion have all revolved around music since he was a young man. In fact, every dollar he has earned has been courtesy of his musical pursuits, spanning a career in the United States Air Force and a decade as a college music teacher.
Johnson spent 28 years in the Air Force as a band commander and conductor. He followed in the tradition of Glenn Miller, who conducted the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band during World War II before he died in 1944. While having less name recognition then Miller, Johnson has left his mark on military music as an arranger, conductor and composer.
"I think Hal is one of the elder statesmen of the military music field," said David Warne, owner of Sun Radius International, who has worked with Johnson during the past three years. "He is very much in touch with doing arrangements of popular music and is known around the world for his arrangements."
Not a man to toot his own horn, the trombone and piano player credits his success to many lucky breaks in his life. The first came when Johnson entered active duty in the Air Force in 1957 and was able to step right into an open conducting position as commander of an Air Force Band.
From there, he never looked back, moving on to conduct and command bands in England, Germany and at Air Force bases around the United States. While stationed in West Germany, he conducted his band in performances throughout Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Johnson relished all aspects of his job throughout his Air Force career.
"The most satisfying thing was that I had the opportunity to work with first-class musicians and they got better as the years went on," said Johnson, who played for every president from Eisenhower to Reagan. "We played serious concert music, show music. We learned long ago that a band has to be a show rather than a military display."
Johnson found that Europe had a strong tradition of military bands and competition among countries and service bands was heated. Even the United States service bands, which included three Army bands, one Air Force band and one Navy band, vied intensely to claim direct descent from Glenn Miller's band.
During his years in Europe, Johnson also honed his arranging skills by arranging music to popular tunes heard on the radio.
"Overseas, a song would come out on the radio and the music wasn't available yet, so I would work up an arrangement," Johnson recalled. "I did write and publish some music in the 1960s, I got enough to buy a car. I probably got fifteen cents an hour when I figured it out."
When he retired in 1985 as a lieutenant colonel, Johnson was commander and conductor of the band based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. His territory included 11 states and 98 million people and his bands performed in 900 engagements a year. He even brought a band to Traverse City a few times to participate in the National Cherry Festival, always giving a sit-down concert at Thirlby Field before the band competition.
Johnson began conducting and arranging while studying music as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. He initially entered the school's engineering program but by his second year had switched his major to music. While a less practical pursuit, it was one that had captured his heart at an early age.
"Just like falling in love with a girl, you just have to go for it," Johnson said, who now performs with area jazz musicians and occasionally teaches arranging and music theory. "I was going to make music, whatever I did."
Johnson and his wife, the former Marion Frye of Traverse City, were high school sweethearts who shared 45 years together before her death last year. With three grown children scattered around the country- an architect, an astronaut and a music teacher- the Johnsons returned to their hometown when he retired from teaching in 1997. Their daughter designed their retirement home on land they had bought in the early 1970s, when they were already looking ahead to spending their golden years in Traverse City.
"We loved it here, had great affection for the area," Johnson said. "Even though we were gone for 47 years, we always came back at least one or two times a year."
Growing up on Washington Street, Johnson credits his musical development to his mother, a piano teacher, and the music program in Traverse City schools.
"The Traverse City school music program now is absolutely the best," Johnson said. "Our program was not nearly as sophisticated then; we had a very good music program but not the depth or breadth it has now."